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The world of marketing communications is shifting rapidly to focus on Experiences. According to the IPA’s Bellwether report, investment in event marketing has grown consecutively in the UK for four-and-a-half years. To celebrate the power of experiences and further raise the profile of experiences, Imagination has developed the first Connected Experiences Index Report.

The Report is an impartial piece of research that shows tangible ROI through social amplification, connecting the experience with far wider audiences than those who attended in person. The Index ranks 30 brand experiences in order of success, based on engagement measured by social mentions and brand sentiment.

Created in collaboration with global Social Intelligence platform Synthesio, the Index is compiled from the winning entries of the 2017 Campaign Event Awards, Cannes Lions events category, D&AD events category and The Drum Event Awards. The Index measures engagement through social mentions and deep dive analysis of brand sentiment, ranking the top 30 brand experiences in order of success.

Each experience (30 measured in total) has been given a total Index score which represents the social effectiveness of the experience itself. This is the combined result of the amplification score and sentiment score. The amplification score is based on the total number of social mentions generated from the brand experience taken from a 7-day period, starting from the launch date. The sentiment score is based on Synthesio’s Social Reputation Score – calculated as percentage of positive, neutral and negative comments.

The index was created using data from Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, tracking the specific combination of ‘brand name’ and ‘experience name or hashtag’.

As a wider analysis for the Top 10, we looked at the ‘Supercharge’ ability of experiences. This is the effect of the experience on the brand itself. The level of social mentions generated from the experience compared with a baseline for the brand.

“Having the opportunity to see our data being used by our customers in creative and thought‐provoking ways is what makes our client relationships incredibly rewarding and fun,” explained Chris Vitti, Chief Marketing Officer of Synthesio. “And seeing our proprietary Social Reputation Score factored into the rankings of this Index is an honour for us and something we are thrilled to be a part of.”

Patrick Reid, Group Chief Executive Officer, Imagination added: “This index follows evidence that shows investment in events marketing to have grown consecutively in the UK for four-and-a-half years. The IPA’s Bellwether report indicates that almost 24% of surveyed marketing executives revised budgets higher in this area during the first quarter of 2018, so it’s a vital piece of research that not only celebrates brand experiences, but shows tangible ROI.”